For you, being a nerd is simply part of your biological makeup; it’s who you are.  But knowing nerd-like things… now that’s another story.  Building up that beautiful “nerdness” requires a different kind of dedication.  A case in point of this careful character crafting is that it takes far more than one viewing of Lord of the Rings to memorize the names of all the people, kingdoms, and shadowy figures in Middle-earth or that it involves more than one journey to master the legendary world of Dungeons & Dragons.

As an IT Provider, you’re naturally a nerd.  In fact, you’ve probably hightailed it to your closet already to dust off your D&D wardrobe.  And this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Society as a whole expects people in the tech industry to reek of geek, and if you don’t, they may subconsciously question your skills.  This being said, it’s great that you’re a nerd and all, but again, legitimately knowing all those nerd-like IT things requires more than one trip to Middle-earth and certainly more than a few costume changes in some random fantasy campaign.  It requires work, dedication, and a massive time investment.

Honing your specific set of nerd skills doesn’t begin and end with tech specs, though.  If you want to be successful, then you need to go beyond hardware and software and learn the ins and outs of things like cyber threats and emerging technology.  And just like any other professional, you’re also responsible for business know-how, management best-practices, and marketing trends.  This honing can occur through various outlets such as webinars, conferences, podcasts, and educational courses; however, an incredibly simple way to build up your knowledge is through online blogging.  Here are just a few of the blogs we recommend.

MSPmentor

From marketing and VoIP to big data and industry news, MSPmentor has it all.  Read educational how-tos from the MSPmentor staff, stay up-to-date on the latest technology trends, or select a sponsored piece to learn more about an applicable industry solution.

The VAR Guy

No one really knows who the VAR Guy is, but he’s been around the IT industry for quite some time now.  The VAR Guy and his team of experts write on subjects such as security, virtualization, mobile devices, and networking, and if you want to know what’s what in your MSP world, then you should actively devour anything and everything that comes from this site.

Entrepreneur or Inc.

Some of the content from these two sites may not be entirely specific to the Managed Services field, but it doesn’t make it any less valuable.  Entrepreneur and Inc. are great for motivation, management, culture, and team-building.  Read in-depth interviews of business frontrunners, explore different leadership styles, understand Millennials on a deeper level, and discover new ways to innovate.

Dark Reading or SC Magazine

Data is a big deal these days, and protecting that data is an even bigger deal.  Whether you decide to go with Dark Reading, SC Magazine, or some other source dedicated to cyber threats, just make sure you actively stay up-to-date with the world of network security.  Content like this isn’t just good for you; it’s priceless material you can share with your clients.

Product Blogs

We’ll keep this one short and sweet.  You should be following the blogs of any products or solutions you use on a daily basis or anything you heavily rely on to be successful.

Harvard Business Review

Sometimes it can feel like HBR’s content can drone on and on and on, but typically, there are little golden nuggets that you can pick out of each article.  HBR’s writers are research-driven and like to base their content off real-life examples and situations – which means a great majority of their material is built around facts or professional experiments.  The statistics, advice, and stories you can get from HBR is usually invaluable.